The Trump administration is reportedly housing migrant youth in a Pennsylvania juvenile prison with a documented history of allegations of staff abuse towards children.
In August, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which oversees unaccompanied migrant children, awarded $9 million to Abraxas Alliance to hold up to 30 migrants deemed dangers to themselves or others at Abraxas Academy, a facility in Morgantown.
Since October, between five and eight migrant teen boys have been held in a wing of the facility, a Washington Post investigation found. Some have parents or relatives in the U.S., according to an attorney from the National Center for Youth Law who visited the facility in November.
The facility has a troubling history, the paper found. Between 2013 and November 2025, state inspectors reportedly documented at least 15 incidents in which they said staff physically mistreated children, including at least two incidents where staff were accused of sexually harassing the detainees.
In November, the state of Pennsylvania revoked one of the facility’s licenses for a different unit. Officials have said that a staff member shoved a child’s face into a table.
The facility also faces a 2024 sexual abuse lawsuit from six former residents.
Jonathan White, a former official at the federal Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the refugee resettlement office, told the Post a history of such allegations is usually “instantly disqualifying” when it comes to seeking government contracts.
“This is the kind of thing under Republican and Democratic administrations you terminate existing grants for — you don’t give new grants to places like that,” he said.
The Independent has contacted HHS, ORR, and Abraxas for comment.
In a move to crack down on trafficking and other forms of mistreatment, the Trump administration has moved to tighten requirements for those seeking to take custody of unaccompanied migrant children, requiring income documents, fingerprinting, and DNA testing.
The average number of days children are held in ORR custody roughly tripled this year compared to 2024.
In December, ORR had an average of 2,458 children in its care, according to government data.
As of late last year, ICE held more than 65,000 adult detainees.
The Trump administration has secured record funding to expand federal immigration detention and has faced allegations of mistreating migrants in its custody.
At least 32 people died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025, the deadliest year in more than two decades.
The Trump administration also summarily deported hundreds of migrants to the CECOT prison in El Salvador, a facility sometimes called a “tropical gulag” for its harsh conditions. Detainees there were held incommunicado from their families and have alleged they were beaten and tortured.
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